Caitlin Clark will be in a 3-point contest for the first time in her pro career as the Indiana Fever guard will compete Friday night in the WNBA All-Star competition.

She’ll be joined by contest record holder Sabrina Ionescu, who last entered the contest in 2023 and hit 25 of her 27 shots in the final round, scoring 37 points. It was the most shots made in a 3-point contest in either the WNBA or NBA.

The Liberty’s star guard wanted to make sure she was completely healthy before officially entering the contest. She said she’ll be trying to break her own mark.

Clark’s management team said earlier this year when she turned down competing in some fashion at NBA All-Star weekend that the young star wanted her first 3-point contest to be in Indianapolis at the WNBA weekend.

Allisha Gray, who made her own history last season, winning the 3-point and Skills Challenge, will try and defend her title in both competitions. She beat Jonquel Jones 22-21 to win the 3-point shootout. Gray beat Sophie Cunningham by 2 seconds to win the skills competition.

The Atlanta Dream star received $110,000 from Aflac as part of a partnership with the WNBPA. The 3-point contest winner this year will get an extra $5,000 from Aflac. Gray also got $2,575 from the league for each of her two victories.

Other participants in the 3-point contest are Washington rookie Sonia Citron and Los Angeles’ Kelsey Plum.

Union, league far apart on new CBA

The WNBA players union and league officials have much to discuss when they sit down this week for their first in-person talks as a group since December about the new collective bargaining agreement.

After sharing initial proposals, the two sides apparently are far apart in the early negotiations as they prepare for their first face-to-face meeting that includes the players executive council in Indianapolis on Thursday heading into All-Star weekend.

“We got a proposal from the league, which was honestly a slap in the face,” Phoenix Mercury forward and union rep Satou Sabally said.

Increased salaries, revenue sharing and roster size are three areas where the union expect to see major changes from the current CBA that will expire at the end of this season after the players decided to opt out last year. Nearly all the players who aren’t on rookie scale contracts right now will be free agents after this season and looking for big salary increases.

Union president Nneka Ogwumike, who has now been a part of three CBA negotiations, is optimistic that Thursday’s meeting could be beneficial for both sides since it’s in-person. The two sides have had meetings over the past few months, but this will be the first time that all the players on the executive council will be there.

Ogwumike said “when you’re doing things via documents, when you’re doing things via proxy, whether it’s ... our union staff and league staff,” it’s different. But “when you’re sitting at the table, things a lot of times, in my experience, you get done a little bit more efficiently.”

The WNBA is experiencing unprecedented growth across nearly every business metric from attendance and viewership. There’s also the new $2.2 billion media rights deal that will start next season and the league plans to expand to 18 teams by 2030 with each of the three new teams paying $250 million expansion fee.

“It’s interesting that there’s a $250 million expansion fee, and there’s no openness to have that be reflected in revenue share that goes to the players, especially as we’re experiencing growth,” Ogwumike said. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but we’re hoping we can get some clarity on that in Indiana.”

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said at the draft in April that the union’s initial proposal wasn’t comprehensive, but that she also is optimistic that a deal would get done.

“We’ll get something done and it’ll be transformational,” she said. ”These things take time.”

Fever outlast Sun

Clark struggled in her first-ever visit to Boston — a performance that didn’t seem to spoil the mood of the fans who filled TD Garden on Tuesday night for a rare WNBA game in the home of the Celtics and Bruins. Fans wearing Clark’s No. 22 crowded toward the court before the game trying to get her autograph, waving her jersey or homemade signs begging for a selfie.

Clark scored 14 points on 4-for-14 shooting — 1 of 7 from deep — adding seven assists and eight rebounds for the Fever, who pulled away in the fourth quarter to win 85-77 over the Connecticut Sun.

Kelsey Mitchell scored 20 points and Natasha Howard had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Fever (12-10).

Tina Charles scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Sun (3-19), who got 19 points from Leila Lacan off the bench.